a curious look at plants, and life, with ‘lab girl’ author hope jahren

If you want an indoor plant that is known for its tropical looks, then what else then Bird’s Nest Fern Care. While it’s not super easy to grow it, you can still keep healthy and happy if you know these care instructions below.

With all that in mind, I made my annual frantic call with some urgent tomato questions to today’s guest, Craig LeHoullier in North Carolina, the NC Tomato Man as he’s known on social media, author of the classic book, “Epic Tomatoes” (affiliate link). Craig knows more about these cherished fruits than almost anyone I’ve ever met. He even shares that in live sessions each week on his Instagram account where you can ask your questions and get solid answers. I asked Craig how he’s doing and what we should all be doing to bolster a bountiful harvest and also about which fruits to save next year’s seed from anyhow and other tomato questions. Read along a

2 tbsp canola oil 12 oz package original breakfast sausage links 4 green onions chopped with white and green portions separated 8 oz portabella mushrooms, sliced 1-pint cherry tomatoes, halved 1 tsp dried thyme or 1 tbsp fresh thyme ½ tsp salt 3 cups water 1 cup milk 1 cup grits (white or yellow) ¼ cup butter 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese Heat oil in a large sauté pan. Add sausage links and cook until browned and thoroughly cooked. Remove sausage and keep warm. In the same pan used to cook sausage, add the white portion of the chopped green onion and mushrooms. Sauté until tender. Add tomatoes, thyme and salt and sauté until the tomatoes are tender. Add sausage back to the pan and gently stir to evenly heat.

Ferns have been on the planet for more than 300 million years—about twice as long as flowering plants—and in recent years breeders with sophisticated eyes have introduced extra-showy varieties for our gardens.No wonder there is a focus on ferns, since they are naturally deer-resistant, mostly adapted to shady gardens, and hey, you don’t need to deadhead them since they’re not flowering plants. You can’t attribute any of those qualities to, say, a daylily.On my radio show and podcast, Tony treated me to a 101 on ferns and how to use them in the garden (that’s a tiny section of the 28-acre private nonprofit Juniper

EVERYONE’S COME HOME FOR THE WINTER and there isn’t much navigating space in some rooms here–sound familiar? If there were a few more tender plants to accommodate, I’d need to build an addition, to overwinter them all. Until Andre the doodler pointed out the parallel with this weekly doodle, I didn’t know about the show “Hoarders,” oh my oh my.

I promise myself I’ll do this every spring: cut one of each kind of daffodil here, record it with the camera, track down its name. And then spring gets away from me. I did manage to get the dozen above and another few below so far, though, before they withered; I missed the little extra-early guys–again.Comparing old notes and current catalog photos, I did pretty well with this batch, but that small-cupped yellow beauty (bottom row, far left, of top photo) with the orange rim is going to elude me, I can just tell, and some of the others look like certain varieties except they’re smaller or bigger than they’re supposed to be according to the listings I can find. Here’s where I am so far (with my “notes to self” in parentheses):Top p

Where did we fail?Is it the wrong orchid for our conditions, or did we do wrong by the right orchid? Oh, dear.I sought advice from Greg Griffis, the orchid grower for Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where the annual Orchid

Besides ideas for flavor combinations, we’ve assembled loads of links to specific recipes for soups ranging from winter squash to lentil, onion to tomato, root vegetables and even garlic, here and on her website. Read along as you listen to the Oct. 30, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Plus: enter to win Ali’s book “Bread Toast Crumbs,” which includes ideas for great easy peasant loaves, soup toppers and even some soup recipes, by commenting at the very bottom of the page.Update: Ali and I also did a whole other vegetable soup episode–from the basic version to recipes with beans, and even mushroom soups, too. It’s here.soup ideas with ali staffordQ. I’ve been so looking forward to this conversation about my favorite food.A. I’m so happy it’s soup se

You know: when gardening season returns. It will return. It will.How are you all faring in your personal winter wonderlands?

Joe gardens in the Atlanta area, but has for years visited gardens around the nation as the longtime creator and host of the much-loved“Growing a Greener World” program on public television. I’ll confess that he’s also someone I treasure as a virtual colleague, someone I often email with my own Urgent Garden Questions for advice, so I’m especially glad he’s helping us get started on our 2018 paths.Read along as you listen to the Dec. 18, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).garden recap and resolutions, with joe lamp’lQ. Did you close up that garden down there in Atlanta or what?A. You kno

The book from Yale University Press is called “Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot,” and its author—the tree’s biographer, really—is Peter Crane, former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and current dean and professor in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale.He joined me on my public-radio show and podcast to talk about Ginkgo biloba—about why it is “the platypus of the plant world,” how a love poem by Goethe helped popularize the tree, and how there are now more than 200 cultivars with diverse